Coin of the Realm

In each regime, there is some item or attribute that is deemed precious to the powers that be, "the ruling elite." It is the surrogate for wealth and power and may yield actual wealth and status for the ones that hold and use it wisely. It is called the “coin of the realm.” It is deemed so precious that some will do almost anything to obtain it. In the Bush Administration, that coin has been revealed as blind, unflagging political partisanship and loyalty. It is the thing that induced Scooter Libby to illegally disclose the identity of a covert CIA operative and later to commit perjury to obstruct a federal investigation of that leak. Despite a felony conviction, it is also the thing that assures Libby of an eventual Presidential pardon.

The coin of the realm is also evident in recent firings of eight US Attorneys by Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. Each new piece of evidence that appears as the drama unfolds in the Congressional Investigation points to a purely partisan agenda: (a) to remove US Attorneys who refused to blindly give in to pressure from the White House and the Justice department to prosecute cases against Democratic opponents, and (b) to remove entirely competent incumbents simply to make room for more “loyal” partisan replacements.

In a New York Times Article, Adam Cohen details a case in which the flip side of that coin was displayed. In the highly important swing state of Wisconsin, the US Attorney for the Milwaukee district usurped the authority of the Madison US Attorney to prosecute a female civil service employee for allegedly steering a travel services contract to a company owned by a contributor to the Democratic Governor’s campaign. The woman's image and conviction were used by the GOP opponent in highly negative campaign ads that depicted her as a convict and falsely linking her as an "aide" to the Governor. Recently, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit summarily threw out the conviction on appeal [long after the election – however, the Democratic Governor was re-elected] stating that the evidence upon which the US Attorney had prosecuted the case was “beyond thin.” The court ordered her release even before the opinion was written.

One might conclude that a federal prosecution against a civil servant (appointed by a republican Governor) who knew nothing about the campaign contributions of the contract award recipient, and who was only one of several commission members who awarded the contract to the lowest bidder in a public process, must have had some ulterior motive. Given the mountain of legal evidence indicating innocence and the absence of any sound legal theory, one might also conclude that the prosecuting US Attorney, Mr. Biskupic, was either motivated by an improper purpose or grossly incompetent. Either basis would be sufficient for removing a person from the important post of US Attorney.

If we look to the prosecution theory advanced by Mr. Biskupic for the underlying motivation, we again see evidence of the coin of the realm. As Adam Cohen reported, the Court of Appeals openly criticized Biskupic for not even having a viable legal theory, much less and arguable position. In order to obtain a conviction, the woman must have sought or obtained personal gain from some illegal act, which this woman clearly had not. But Mr. Biskupic alleged that she gained by obtaining "political advantage for her superiors" and that in pleasing them she "enhanced job security for herself."

The apparent mystery regarding the motive for the false prosecution and use of that prosecution in the political campaign dissolves. Whether as a result of direct orders or intense pressure to prosecute cases to damage political opponents in swing states, Biskupic was clearly seeking to demonstrate to his superiors that he was a loyal and steadfast partisan who would forsake personal reputation, legal standards and ethics to obtain "political advantage for his superiors" and to "enhance job security for himself." In the midst of the firing of eight other US Attorneys purportedly for “performance issues” after supposedly ranking all attorneys, Mr. Biskupic kept his US Attorney post.

And it was done so quietly that you could hear a coin drop.